Mary Sculley sits in her living room in her home in Grand Rapids Friday. The painting behind Scully is one of her pieces. Scully's faith and her artwork have helped her through her trying times.

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A sequence of 10 letters, numbers and symbols has affected Mary Sculley's life in ways most people could never imagine.

It was about three years ago the now 54-year-old Wisconsin Rapids woman learned that a mutation in her BRCA2 (BReast CAncer) gene - signified by DNA sequence IVS21-1G>A - increased her chance of developing breast cancer to 84 percent and her chance of developing ovarian cancer to 27 percent. It also meant her three children, sisters, brothers, nieces and nephews were at an increased risk of developing cancer.